Masanelo

Massanello is a Neapolitan fisherman whom Thomas Paine invokes as a warning about political power left unclaimed. According to Paine’s account, he rallied his countrymen against Spanish oppression and became king within a day; the example makes the danger of an unsettled American government concrete, while strengthening the case for independence established through lawful popular authority rather than an adventurer’s seizure of power.

Identity and Historical Example

Paine’s brief account identifies Massanello as Thomas Anello, a fisherman of Naples, then under Spanish rule. After stirring his countrymen in the public marketplace to resist Spanish oppression, he prompted them to revolt and, within a day, became king. The episode is presented as a rapid political reversal: a popular rising placed extraordinary authority in the hands of a man of humble station.

The Warning for America

Massanello appears in Paine’s argument about America’s precarious political condition. Paine says that the continent lacks settled law and government, and that its unity rests on a concurrence of public sentiment which could change or be dissolved. In that unsettled situation, postponing the formation of a government could leave the way open for a figure like Massanello to exploit popular disquiet and gather the desperate and discontented around him.

The analogy is cautionary, not a claim that Massanello’s revolt and America’s circumstances are identical. Paine imagines that a return of government to Britain, combined with instability at home, could tempt a desperate adventurer to seize power before Britain could respond. The example therefore turns political delay into a risk to liberty: leaving authority vacant does not guarantee freedom, but may invite an abrupt and unaccountable settlement.

Independence and Political Legitimacy

Paine contrasts the possible rise of a Massanello with independence secured by the legal voice of the people in Congress. He presents that route as an opportunity to form a durable constitution and to begin anew, rather than allowing independence to arrive through military power or a mob. The fisherman’s sudden elevation thus serves as a measure of what is at stake in the choice of means: popular unrest can overturn authority quickly, but Paine’s preferred outcome requires deliberate political organization.

The example also fits Paine’s broader distinction between society and government. He describes society as arising from human needs and government as a response to failures of virtue, with security as government’s proper end. Massanello enters this reasoning not as a developed political theory or a continuing character, but as a historical figure whose swift rise illustrates what may happen when political institutions are left unsettled. His place in the argument is ultimately preventive: the warning is meant to make a considered, popularly authorized government more urgent.